The following article by Deirdre Fernandes was posted on the Boston Globe website March 7, 2017:
Jorge Ayala is an H-2B worker at the Stratton Mountain Club.
Every spring, thousands of workers from Jamaica, the Philippines, and Mexico flood into New England, providing the backbone of the region’s summer economy. They wash dishes in clam shacks on the Cape, clean hotel rooms in Bar Harbor, Maine, and mow lawns from Rhode Island to New Hampshire.
But changes to the seasonal worker visa program, a logjam in the federal approval process, and the Trump administration’s sharp rhetoric about immigration have business owners across the region worried that they won’t be able to hire enough workers.
“We’re all fearful, based on personnel changes on the federal level, that they’re going to process applications less favorably,” said Sam Bradford, chief financial officer of Mac’s Seafood in Wellfleet. “Without this program, the tourism industry implodes.” Continue reading “Tourist areas fear a worker shortage under visa rules”